Former town employee charged with embezzlement to go to trial

A former town of Silver City purchasing agent charged with embezzling $12,000 from the town by allegedly using her city credit card to buy gifts, concert tickets, and thousands of dollars’ worth of makeup for her personal business selling Younique products will head to trial after she was declined for pre-prosecution diversion by the District Attorney’s Office.

LeAnn Misquez was employed with the town of Silver City from 2012 through December 2016 and the criminal complaint alleges that beginning in July 2015 through October 2016 Misquez used her town-issued credit card to make thousands of dollars of personal purchases and then used her position at the town to cover it. The complaint alleges that Misquez altered statements and receipts and changed the names of the vendors she purchased personal items from to approved vendors for the town, and used other people’s receipts to help cover her thefts.

Her alleged embezzlement came to light after Misquez left the town in November 2016 and a new purchasing agent noticed discrepancies and then contacted the New Mexico State Auditor’s Office. The town then conducted a special audit and discovered Misquez had allegedly embezzled more than $12,000 from the town over a little more than a year.

She was never actually arrested, but was sent a criminal summons to appear in court on 138 counts of embezzlement, fraud and forgery — 50 of them felonies.

Misquez, who had moved to northern New Mexico by the time her alleged crimes had been uncovered, appeared in District Court in July with her defense attorney, Nathan Gonzales, who told the court his client was applying for the pre-prosecution diversion program.

The Pre-Prosecution Diversion Act is aimed at removing those deemed most amenable to rehabilitation and the least likely to commit future offenses from the criminal justice system. The person must have no felony record and the crime cannot be one of violence. While Misquez met the criteria, Silver City Town Manager Alex Brown has said he was against Misquez getting pre-prosecution diversion because then there would be no record of her crimes and no way to alert a potential future employer to her alleged thefts.

“The DA’s investigator did come and talk to me to follow up and see what our position was, and we again stressed that we need to see this on her record because I don’t want to see her in a position where she can handle money with a future employer,” Brown said.

The town has still not seen any restitution for the $12,000.

“Early on, they offered to pay it if we dropped all the charges, and I declined at that time,” Brown said.

The town is also out another $26,000 for the cost of the special audit it had to pay to have done following the discovery of the thefts, Brown said.

“I told them I wanted that to be considered,” Brown said.

When contacted by the Daily Press, Misquez’s attorney, Nathan Gonzales, declined to comment.

Misquez is scheduled for a status conference in Silver City District Court on Nov. 5.

While working for the town of Silver City, Misquez earned a salary of between $30,000 and $32,000 a year. After she left the town, she went to work for the state Children, Youth and Families Department. The New Mexico Sunshine Portal listed her as being hired on Dec. 3, 2016, as an office clerk with CYFD for a salary of $24,960; however, she is apparently on leave from the state until her case is resolved, according to her pre-prosecution application.